CHAPTER 31
Fuery prowled back and forth along the grassy bank, his eyes never leaving his foe as he wrestled with the darkness that pulsed in his veins, blazed in his blood. He growled and pivoted on his heel, swiftly turning to pace back the way he had come. His muscles coiled tight beneath his black armour, the pale sunlight catching the tiny scales and making iridescent colours ripple over them.
He breathed through his nerves, vanquished his fear, would let nothing stand in his way as he mastered the darkness, pulling back on the reins to force it to yield to him.
He had been training for over two weeks for this mission, had been mentally preparing himself the past day, and now it was time.
The broad wooden door of the elegant pale stone mansion slowly opened.
His heartbeat jacked up, hammering in his throat, and he curled his fingers into fists at his sides as he turned towards the two-storey building and bravely strode forwards, through the open gate that intersected the stone wall and into the grand garden that suited the house it embraced.
Shaia appeared from the shadows, stopping on the doorstep, looking radiant in a pale lilac dress and a wrought silver corset that hugged her torso, arcing beneath her breasts to push them upwards and cinching in her waist.
This was it.
He blew out his breath, tipped his chin up and marched towards her.
His nerve faltered as her mother appeared behind her and he spotted her father lingering in the vestibule.
Shaia said something, her sweet smile capturing his black heart and easing his nerves as she turned from her mother and came to face him. She held her hand out to him and he went to her, couldn’t stop his feet from carrying him towards her to close the distance between them. He needed to touch her. He needed to hold her.
It consumed him, drove him onwards despite his fears and the insidious words whispering at the back of his mind, born of his past.
He lifted his hand when he neared her, wanting to slip it into hers and clutch it, but hesitated when eyes landed on him. It was only for a heartbeat before he conquered the fear that had birthed it, but it was a hesitation nonetheless.
The feel of Shaia’s soft warm hand in his drove all fear out of his heart and the way she slipped her fingers between his to lock their palms together eased his nerves.
“You remember Fuery.” Her tone was matter of fact, bright despite the anger he could feel in her.
His little viper.
He had worried about bringing her to the guild when she had announced it was their home now, hadn’t been able to sleep a wink the first two nights, forever on alert and waiting for something terrible to happen, something that would drive her away from such a dangerous place. He had imagined it all, tormenting himself with visions of her being harassed by the other assassins, or harmed by them.
But on the third day of her being there, when he had been called to Hartt’s office and had left her unattended for the first time, she had shown him that he had no reason to worry about her.
His worst fear had come true, and one of the newer assassins had dared to block her path when she had been coming to find him, trapping her in the corridor and speaking disgusting things to her.
He had felt her fear go through him.
Had burst from Hartt’s office.
But by the time he had reached her, she had laid the wolf shifter out on his back and had been poised on top of him, her dagger pressed against his throat and her other hand fiercely gripping the male’s hair, pulling at it as she growled at him, flashing fangs in warning.
Gods, he had been hard in an instant.
His gorgeous, surprising little viper.
She had a mean streak in her, one that stole his heart.
He had helped her stand, had kicked the wolf’s arse until he had been little more than a whimpering, apologising mess on the floor, and had then started her training.
She was a natural.
Even Hartt was impressed with the skill she displayed at such an early stage in her training with sword and spear.
Fuery had warned his friend that she wasn’t going to become their first female assassin.
Although he wasn’t sure how long he could stick to his guns on that one.
The thought of Shaia coming with him on missions was appealing, always there when he needed her calming touch, or hungered for her.
Her gaze landed on him during a lull in her conversation with her parents, and he burned as an electric sizzle chased over his skin, cranking his muscles even tighter.
He slid his eyes to land on her, breathed harder as he spotted the unmistakable flicker of desire and need in her violet ones and felt it ripple through their connection.
Oh gods, yes, he could imagine taking her on missions with him. It would be glorious.
She would watch his back, and he would tear apart any foe who tried to reach hers.
“Fuery?” she whispered and subtly widened her eyes as she jerked her head a little towards her parents.
He shook his wicked thoughts away and focused on his mission.
They had decided to continue where they had left off all those centuries ago, starting with telling her parents they were mated and she was leaving with him. That had been her idea. Her parents already knew she was his fated one, and they were bound, and that had been enough for him, but it hadn’t been enough for her.
So here he was.
Trying to play nice to appease her.
Because despite the things her family had done to her, they were still her family, and for some reason he couldn’t fathom, she loved them and wanted to remain in touch with them. This was important to her, and so it was important to him.
But he was only going to let her visit once every decade and he was coming with her when it happened. He wouldn’t put it past her parents to attempt to find a way to take her from him and hand her over to a noble male of their choosing.
“Shaia is mine,” he growled, a little harsher and more possessive than anticipated, and weathered her glare that told him he was doing this wrong. He cleared his throat and told himself again to play nice. “Your daughter is my ki’ara, and we are bound. She is no longer your pawn or your possession to do with as you please. She is mine now, and I will protect her by any means necessary.”
A little harsh again judging by how Shaia sighed emphatically.
“Very well,” Sarea muttered and barely spared him a glance before she turned and swept imperiously away from them, disappearing into the house.
Fuery half-expected Aylen to do the same.
The male surprised him by coming forwards and extending a hand to him.
He eyed it.
Shaia nudged him in the ribs.
He sighed, released her hand and clasped the one the male offered.
“Hurt her, and I will hunt you down like the tainted beast you are,” Aylen growled.
Fuery grinned, flashing his emerging fangs, and gripped the male’s hand harder, squeezing his bones. “You wouldn’t see me coming.”
Shaia placed one hand on his arm and her other on her father’s and broke them apart. “No one is killing the other one today. This was meant to be a happy occasion, Father.”
Aylen looked at her, a sombre edge to his expression. “You love him?”
She nodded. “I love him, and I have loved only him, and I will love only him. Even if he hadn’t been my fated one, I would have loved him… because he is my soul mate… my one true mate.”
The older male sighed. “Very well. I have seen the error of our ways with you, Shaia, and although your mother would never say it, I do believe she is happy for you. Seeing you in this visit, seeing how happy you are, has made us both realise that this is what is best for you.”
Tears lined her eyes, and Fuery wanted to growl at the male for upsetting her, even when he knew they were tears of happiness, because her family weren’t such utter bastards after all. His desire to rip them to pieces to make them pay for everything they had put her through faded a little.
Just a little.
If they ever upset her again, they would have him to deal with, and as he had told Aylen.
They wouldn’t see him coming.
He did growl when Aylen pulled her into an embrace.
“Visit any time,” he whispered, all sweet and nice as he glared at Fuery over her shoulder.
Fuery glared right back at him, making it clear that if she did come to visit, she wouldn’t be alone. He wasn’t going to risk them using a spell to lock her in her room or attempt to palm her off onto another male.
He snagged her arm and pulled her away from the male.
She came willingly, only sighing a little at him as she turned away from her family home and followed him along the path to the gate. When they reached it, she slipped her hand into his and he looked down at them. She gave his a squeeze, one that reassured him that she wasn’t going anywhere.
She was his now.
She always had been.
“Did you mean that?” he muttered as he strode up the hill towards the woods, avoiding the path that would have taken them towards the village.
“With all my heart, Fuery,” she whispered, her voice soft and warm, bringing light to his dark heart and chasing the storm from it, leaving it clear again.
He looked across at her and saw in her eyes, felt in their bond, that she had meant every word.
She would have loved him even if he hadn’t been her fated one.
Soul mate.
He fidgeted with his tunic a little as it appeared on his body to replace his armour, adjusting it with his free hand, and couldn’t find the courage to look at her as he found his voice.
“I would have loved you too,” he murmured and refused to look at her as her eyes lifted and burned into his profile. “You are my true mate… the other half of my soul.”
“Fuery.” She had her arms around his neck and her lips on his before he could react, and all he could do was catch hold of her and drown in her kiss as she poured her love and her light into him, filling him up until he feared he might burst.
He gathered her against him, clinging to her as their hearts beat in unison and her feelings flowed into him, echoing his own.
“Gods, I love you,” he whispered against her lips and clutched her to him, aware he was probably holding her too tightly but unable to stop himself.
He needed more of her.
All of her.
The world around him dropped away and another replaced it, the tall trees rustling in the evening breeze and the river behind him babbling as it coursed around the rocks and ran over the boulders in the bend.
Not his doing.
Shaia breathed hard in his arms, the exertion of teleporting him taking its toll on her, and he wanted to scold her for taxing herself by doing such a thing, but he couldn’t find the will to be angry with her.
Not when she had brought him to this place.
Their place.
He set her down and walked to the tree, his boots sinking into the soft sandy earth on the bank of the river. He stroked his fingers over the marks on the trunk, remembering that day forty-two centuries ago, when he had made them to commemorate their mating. The marks were deep now, as if someone had returned frequently to carve them into the fresh layer of bark, stopping the tree from repairing them.
His heart warmed as he lingered with his fingers on them, aware that it had been Shaia’s doing. She had come back to this place and had kept their love alive here.
“Fuery,” Shaia whispered, voice drenched with the desire that suddenly flared in their bond, rushing through him.
He slowly turned to face her, his heart beginning a thumping rhythm against his ribs as his eyes landed on her where she stood on the earth, her nimble fingers unlacing the silver ribbon that held her corset closed over her chest and her eyes dark with need.
Need of him.
He growled as he raked his eyes over her, taking in the way her dress dipped low in a sweeping curve across her chest and her corset arced beneath her breasts, pushing them up to form a tantalising flash of cleavage. Her nipples beaded beneath the ruched lilac fabric as he stared at her breasts, his mouth going dry as he thought about tugging that barrier down to reveal them.
She gasped as he closed the distance between them in a flash and did just that, hooking his thumbs into the sides of her neckline to pull the material down and free her breasts. He dropped his hands to her backside, lifted her up his body and seized her left nipple, tugging it between his lips. She moaned, the sound sweet torture in the evening air, and arched backwards, pushing her breasts up, as her hands clasped his shoulders.
He groaned as she slid one hand over his back and buried it in his hair, twisting the black strands around it as she held him to her.
Gods, he needed her.
He could barely breathe as he suckled her nipple, his cock so hard in his trousers that it ached and he couldn’t stop himself from forcing her hips against his and grinding against her.
He fought to hold on to some restraint as he thumbed her other nipple and drank in her moans, feasted on the desire and need that raged hot inside her, driving him to satisfy her.
Shaia shattered it when she spoke.
“I want you to mark my neck.” Her breathless, eager words were followed by a flash of embarrassment that coloured her cheeks as he suddenly jerked back and looked at her face.
She worried her lower lip with her teeth in a way that made him imagine doing that for her, and his eyes dropped to them, shock over what she had said fading away as he stared at them.
Her embarrassment faded too, and when she spoke this time there was force behind her words, a determination that said she had made up her mind and nothing would change it.
“Mate with me, Fuery… as we should be mated… as we wanted all those years ago.”
She searched his eyes as he lifted them to meet hers, a flicker of something in them that their bond relayed to him.
She didn’t need to fear he would refuse her.
He wanted it as much as she did.
Possibly more.
He showed her by gripping the nape of her neck, dragging her up to him and kissing her hard, thrusting his tongue between her lips to tangle it with hers. He moaned as she met him, pushed for dominance and teased his fangs with the tip of her tongue, sending a hot shiver down his spine. He tortured her back, ripping a low sweet groan from her as he tongued her fangs, teasing them into dropping.
She growled and cranked things up a notch in response, waging war on his restraint again as she made fast work of the buttons of his tunic and shoved it open. Her palms scalded his bare chest, sending another electric shiver over his skin that shot downwards and had his cock jerking against the confines of his trousers.
Gods.
When her hands drifted downwards, nails raking over his stomach, he couldn’t stop himself.
He growled, spun her in his arms to face away from him and palmed her breasts as he drew her back against his front and devoured her neck with wet kisses and gentle nips, drawing droplets of blood that only sent him soaring higher as they hit his tongue and exploded on it, filling all of his senses with her.
She rocked back against him, her need ratcheting up as swiftly as his was, her movements jerky and as desperate as his own, calling to his instincts as her mate.
As her male.
He caught her cheek with his left hand as he rolled her nipple between his fingers and forced her head around so he could kiss her again. She groaned into his mouth as hers found it, her kiss so fierce that it stole his breath. She raised her left arm above her head, cupped the back of his neck and held him to her as she lowered her other hand to his hip and pressed back against him.
He shuddered and rocked against her buttocks, trembling as he thrust his aching erection between them, gliding up and down, his heart pounding as he imagined being inside her and feeling her wet heat gripping him as he sank his fangs into her neck.
He dropped his right hand, skimming it over her breasts and down her corset to her hips, and pulled her skirts up, bundling them at her waist. She tore another groan from his lips as she released his hip and helped him, parting the material for him and baring herself.
He wanted to see her, wanted to taste her honey on his lips and drink from her.
Fuery swept her up into his arms, kicked off and swallowed her gasp in another fierce kiss as her back hit the broad trunk of the tree where they had first made love. He had wanted to taste her then, but hadn’t been able to hold back, had barely taken a sip before need of her had consumed him.
This time, he would do it.
He dropped her to her feet, and fell to his knees before her. She trembled as he skimmed his hands up her calves to her knees, and then higher, lifting the layers of lilac fabric to reveal her as he caressed her thighs. She caught her skirts and raised them, held them against her stomach as he stared at her, drinking his fill of her.
Her neat thatch of dark curls glistened with her need, tempting him.
He growled as she inched her thighs apart.
Siren.
He couldn’t stop himself from grabbing her hips, spinning her away from him and dragging her backside towards him, forcing her to bare herself to him.
She groaned as she gripped the tree to stop herself from falling and he swallowed as she stood bent over before him, her pert backside high in the air, her sweet core bared to him.
Fuery trembled as he eased towards her, running his hands up the backs of her thighs and dipping them inwards as they neared her plush petals. She moaned and quivered beneath his touch, her anticipation running hot in his blood, the need he had stoked by exposing her like this, passion and desire that robbed him of his breath and drove him onwards.
He ran his thumbs up her folds and she trembled harder, her breath coming faster. He dipped his head and brushed his tongue over the delicate bead that was tensed and crying out for his attention, and groaned as his first taste of her filled his senses. Honey, lavender and dew. He wanted to drink all of her, ached to feast on her and hear her cry over and over again as she came for him.
He growled and stroked his tongue up her, lapping up her honey and shuddering in time with her. He couldn’t get enough of her. He growled and grasped her hip in his right hand, holding her immobile as he lost control, each stroke of his tongue harder than the last as he devoured her, each moan that issued from her lips tearing another fragile piece of his restraint from him. She shook in his hand, against his tongue, his name falling from her lips as a breathless chant as he swept his tongue between her petals, devouring her.
When he dropped his mouth to her bead and suckled it, she barked out a moan and jerked against him, and his cock ached in response. He rubbed at it, unable to stop himself as it demanded attention, heavy with need that had his balls tight and throbbing.
He had the laces of his trousers opened and his cock in his hand before he was aware of what he was doing, need driving him to take the edge off before it pushed him over it, beyond the point of no return.
Shaia moaned and rocked against his tongue, and a new need rose inside him as he swirled it around her slick opening.
He wanted to feel her.
Her gasp was sweet music to his ears as he released her hip, stroked his fingers over her backside and eased one inside her. She tensed at the invasion, and then relaxed and began rocking on him, a wanton and wild thing that had his breath coming faster and his hand moving on his cock, stroking it in time with each thrust of his finger into her.
She was so wet, so hot, so ready for him.
“Fuery,” she whispered, a seductive plea that he answered.
He rose to his feet behind her, twisted her to face him and lifted her. Her legs wrapped around his waist as he pinned her to the tree, entering her in a single deep thrust that buried his cock to the hilt inside her heat. She groaned, grasped the back of his neck and kissed him hard. He grunted and curled his hips, driving into her, trying to hold back and be gentle with her even as he knew it was a fight he wouldn’t win this time.
He would make love to her later, as gently and beautifully as she deserved.
Right now, he needed her.
He needed to mate with her.
She clung to him as she kissed him, welcoming his deep thrusts, moaning each time their hips met and he filled her. He swallowed those moans, devoured them as fiercely as he devoured her lips as she rocked against him, writhing in his arms, her breasts brushing against his chest with each of his thrusts that drove her up the tree.
Her nails dug into his neck, the brief flicker of pain only stoking his need hotter.
He growled and kissed her harder as he claimed her hips, holding her in place as he drove into her with long, measured thrusts, making her feel every inch of his cock and feeling every inch of her as she flexed around him.
His fangs ached, his mind swimming with her request, one that now drummed in his blood as a need that demanded he sate it, a hunger that had existed inside him since they had first mated in this spot and one he had left unfulfilled.
Until now.
This time, he would bite her throat as he had wanted to back then.
He would mark her as his mate for all to see.
He shuddered and drove deeper as she feathered her fingers over his lobes, anticipation making him tremble as he willed her on, ached to feel her stroking higher. She obeyed, her delicate fingertips following the curve of his ears.
It was game over when they reached the pointed tips.
Fire swept through him, had him shaking against her as it blazed a path from the sensitive tips of his ears to his groin and burned all restraint away. He snarled, tore his mouth away from hers and sank his fangs hard into her throat.
She cried out, the sound echoing in the darkness, carrying for miles on the still air, and jerked against him, her body going as tight as a bowstring as she clutched him. He growled into her throat as her blood hit his tongue and thrust deep and hard, his fingers digging into her backside as he drove his cock into her, propelling her over the edge.
Her body gave a fierce kick against his, another cry left her lips and then she quivered around him, her core throbbing madly around his length and heat scalding him. He grunted and joined her, release boiling up his shaft and sending his legs trembling as he clung to her with one hand and the tree with the other to stop himself from falling, aware of what came next.
He wasn’t sure he could take it.
Her breath washed over his throat.
Her fangs pierced his flesh.
The entire universe detonated.
Stars flashed across his eyes and his head twirled, growing hazy as a second release swept through him and he felt it go through her. The intensity of it had his knees giving out and he managed to gather enough of his wits to twist his body beneath hers so she landed on him, safe from harm.
She moaned and sucked, sending wave after wave of fire through his veins, and along his cock, each pulse of it stealing a little more of his awareness and sending him a little deeper into a blissful haze where he drifted with her, lost and found at the same time.
Home.
At some point, he managed to convince himself to release her throat. He swept his tongue over the marks and savoured the last few drops of her blood as warmth flowed through him, filling every inch of him and leaving no part untouched.
Gods, he loved her.
His beautiful mate.
She slowed her drinking and he shuddered as she stroked her tongue over the marks on his throat, threatening to reignite his desire with each one.
When she settled against him, he drifted with her in his arms, floating somewhere above the world, aware but unaware of it at the same time. He wasn’t sure how long they remained that way, but when he finally opened his eyes again, she was watching him, a beautiful soft look on her face that spoke of her love for him.
He brushed her wavy hair behind her ears, getting his own back a little as he caressed their tips and tore a soft gasp from her, and sighed as he looked at her.
She smiled and rolled off him, and he covered himself as she adjusted her dress and rested against him. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her as she pressed her cheek to his chest, and looked up at the sky as it began to lighten.
It was beautiful as it changed colour, dark blue becoming threaded with ribbons of gold and pink, and he wasn’t sure he had ever seen it this way before.
It felt fresh and new, vibrant and breathtaking, so colourful.
His life had been darkness for so long that he had forgotten such colours existed.
He looked down at Shaia in his arms and silently thanked her for giving them back to him, together with the sliver of light he could feel in his soul.
She shifted so she could see him, and his eyes dropped to the marks on her throat.
His marks.
He lifted his hand and brushed his fingers across them, still a little hazy as he studied them. “You are mine now.”
She whispered, “I was always yours, and I always will be.”
His eyes widened and leaped to hers.
She remembered.
She had said those exact words to him in this very place four thousand years ago.
The heart in his chest that had been cold for so long melted at that, warmed and even burned, his love for her blazing in it like an eternal flame.
Gods, he was blessed to have her.
She was the reason he had never lost himself to the darkness and the reason Hartt was always able to bring him back.
Her love for him had kept him strong even when he had reached his breaking point, had given him light even in his darkest hour, and his love for her had kept him coming back.
For her.
He held her to him, pressed a kiss to her lips, and whispered against them, “I was always yours too, and I always will be.”
Love burned in his heart, and he felt it burn in hers too.
Love that had set them both free, releasing him from the bonds of darkness and her from the shackles of society.
Now they could begin the forever they had always dreamed of together.
Unchained by that forbidden love.
The End